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        <p>Chapter 16. <B>Mandy gets into trouble again</B></p>
        
        <p> Mandy told blonde Mary that she was expecting another visit from her suppliers in the next two days.  &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve no money and no drugs either&rdquo; she told her friend, &ldquo;Adam and Albert threw them into the sea. Mike will be so angry. Can you come with me, Mary?&rdquo;  Blonde Mary was badly frightened by what had happened to Jade. Getting expelled was one thing, but if Jade was found guilty she could be sent to a reform school, where it would be strict shouting and physical exercises all day. Worst of all, the girls wouldn&rsquo;t be nice like Abagail and Cecilia, they would be hard and aggressive, the daughters of criminals. Blonde Mary realised for the first time that she had real friends at St Tom&rsquo;s.  &quot;Go to Fr Abbot&quot; she told her, &quot;it's the only way you'll be safe.&quot;  Mandy knew in her heart that blonde Mary was right. But she shook her head. &quot;He'll be so disappointed in me. And Cecilia told me he preferred not to know about things.&quot;  &ldquo;As you want, Mandy&rdquo; said blonde Mary, &ldquo;I can&rsquo;t make these decisions for you. Just know that, whatever you decide to do, I&rsquo;m there to support you one hundred percent of the way.&rdquo;  She kissed her tenderly.  &ldquo;So you&rsquo;ll come with me?&rdquo; asked Mandy.  &ldquo;Of course, Mandy, if that&rsquo;s what you want. But it&rsquo;s best if you see Fr Abbot alone. Otherwise it looks as though I&rsquo;m forcing you to make a confession, and that&rsquo;s not so good. But if you really want, I can sit with you.&rdquo;  That didn&rsquo;t help.</p>
        
        <p> All through prep Mandy pondered what to do. The unbearable shame of a conversation with Fr Abbot, or the even worse encounter with Mike. Then the solution came to her. Blonde Mary had kept their drugs money alongside her own. The drugs side of the account was now exhausted, but blonde Mary had plenty of private money. You were meant only to keep a few pounds in cash, and the rest at the office, but blonde Mary ignored that rule. Which meant that she couldn&rsquo;t report the money as stolen. And blonde Mary kept her key in a purse, which she put on the top of her locker at night. She&rsquo;d have to be careful not to wake her, but she could easily take the money at night, whilst she slept, then hide it under the insoles of her trainers - Mandy had it all planned out in an instant - no short Mary&rsquo;s trainers - then take the money to Mike. \ That night, heart beating, Mandy willed herself to remain awake until the others were fast asleep. Then she took blonde Mary&rsquo;s locker key from her purse, turned the lock as quietly as she could, felt in with her hand and extracted a wad of notes. She didn&rsquo;t dare count them. Then she took out the insoles of short Mary&rsquo;s trainers, and stuffed the notes underneath them. She went back to bed. It had taken her less than five minutes.</p>
        
        <p> &ldquo;Abbey, Cecilia, tell me honestly&rdquo; said blonde Mary the next morning, &ldquo;did either of you take anything out of my locker, as a joke?&rdquo;  &ldquo;Can&rsquo;t see what sort of joke that would be&rdquo; said Abagail.  &ldquo;Because someone&rsquo;s taken three hundred pounds&rdquo;  &ldquo;Report it&rdquo; said Abagail.  &ldquo;I can&rsquo;t&rdquo; said blonde Mary, &ldquo;we&rsquo;re only supposed to have ten pounds in our lockers at any one time.&rdquo;  &ldquo;We&rsquo;ll have a collection&rdquo; said Cecilia.  &ldquo;It&rsquo;s not really the money&rdquo; said blonde Mary, in distress, &ldquo;it&rsquo;s that someone would do that to me. I don&rsquo;t believe it was any of you girls, I honestly don&rsquo;t think it was any of you girls. Even short Mary, she wouldn&rsquo;t do that. But someone, somewhere, must think they can just take &#8230;&rdquo;she burst into tears.  &ldquo;There are some real bitches in second year&rdquo; said Mandy.  &ldquo;We&rsquo;ll find the thief&rdquo; said Cecilia.  &ldquo;And when we do &#8230;&rdquo; said Abagail.  &ldquo;What?&rdquo; said Cecilia.  &ldquo;There&rsquo;ll be an accident in the refectory. Boiling water. She&rsquo;ll be scalded for life.&rdquo; said Abagail.  Blonde Mary smiled through her tears.</p>
        
        <p>  &ldquo;There&rsquo;s the boat again&rdquo; said Albert, as they dawdled back from Compline.  Adam looked out to sea. He knew the shipping lanes by now, and indeed it almost certainly was.  &ldquo;The ungrateful &#8230;&rdquo; he left the thought unfinished.  &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve hardly any time Adam, come on.&rdquo; called Albert, dragging him to the monastery.  Quickly the two boys pulled on their coats and grabbed their torches. Then, being careful to shine their lights on the path, they ran as fast as they could towards the old jetty. They saw the flash flash flash of the red light, not far out to sea, as the boat signalled to Mandy.</p>
        
        <p> Mandy gave the signal in reply, flashing with her torch. But she was feeling guilty. &ldquo;What am I&rdquo;. she thought, &ldquo;that I have stolen money from my best friend? &ldquo;Then every one of the first years now knew that she was selling drugs, but none had shopped her to Fr Abbot, not even Adam. How had she repaid that trust? And by now she was afraid of Mike. This time, she had managed to scrape together enough money to pay him, but what of next time? The light of the boat drew towards the jetty. Mandy watched it for some time. She had to make a decision, but she couldn&rsquo;t decide. To go to Fr Abbot was unthinkable, but to go to Mike was to get deeper and deeper into the mire.</p>
        
        <p> &ldquo;We can&rsquo;t jump her like last time&rdquo; said Albert, &ldquo;she&rsquo;ll be prepared.&rdquo;  &ldquo;Hadn&rsquo;t thought of that&rdquo; admitted Adam   &ldquo;There&rsquo;s her torch.&rdquo; said Albert, indeed, there was a tiny point of light, further along the path. Quickly the two boys turned off their torches. However there was hardly enough light to see. Carefully, trying not to make a noise, they sneaked off the path and towards some boulders by the sea.  Two large torches appeared along the path, going towards Mandy&rsquo;s torch. Albert pulled Adam flat on the ground. They could hear footsteps, heavy, male footsteps.  &ldquo;Mandy, &ldquo; said a voice, &ldquo;why aren&rsquo;t you at the boat? If this is a trap &#8230;&rdquo;  &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve got the money&rdquo; said Mandy.  &ldquo;Has someone threatened you?&rdquo; said the voice.  There was an inaudible reply.  &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t worry about the police superintendent&rdquo; said the voice, &ldquo;now come on, be a good girl.&rdquo;  &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t want to do this any longer.&rdquo;  There was a sharp slap, and a cry of pain.  &ldquo;What you want doesn&rsquo;t count. You&rsquo;re paid to get the merchandise into that school, and that&rsquo;s what you&rsquo;re going to do. Now I&rsquo;m asking you again, has anyone threatened you?&rdquo;  There was another mumble.  &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll hit you again. Now give me the name. Adam? Don&rsquo;t worry, we&rsquo;ll deal with this Adam character.&rdquo;  Adam felt his blood go cold. &ldquo;Sneak&rdquo; was the only thought in his mind.  Mandy was dragged protesting towards the jetty.  &ldquo;Come on&rdquo; said Albert, and the two boys followed at a distance. They got to the edge of the jetty, and daren&rsquo;t step onto it. The boat was bathed in a pool of light, moored at the terminus.  &ldquo;Now what do we do?&rdquo; said Adam.  &ldquo;We get the name and registration of that boat&rdquo; said Albert, &ldquo;then straight to Fr Abbot.&rdquo;  &ldquo;How? They&rsquo;ll see us if we step onto the jetty.&rdquo;  &ldquo;Swim.&rdquo;  &ldquo;Are you serious? It&rsquo;s too cold.&rdquo;  &ldquo;It&rsquo;s only a few yards. And they&rsquo;ll be two of us.&rdquo; said Albert.  &ldquo;OK&rdquo; Adam pulled off his clothes. The two boys piled their things onto the beach, and waded together into the water, keeping close to the side of the jetty. They could get most of the way before they had to swim, keeping their hands under the water so as not to break the surface and make a tell-tale splash.. Surprisingly, Adam didn&rsquo;t feel all that cold.  Swimming the few yards to the end of the jetty, they made out the stern of the boat. The name, home port and registration number would be printed there. All they had to do was get up closely enough and quietly enough to make out the letters through the gloom.   Adam felt the comforting presence of Albert, behind him. The boat was just feet away from them. Adam could see black lettering on the white stern, but couldn&rsquo;t make out the name. Albert made goggles with his hands on his eyes. Adam understood. He had left his glasses on the beach, and there was no way he could read the name. It was down to Adam.  Adam swam gently to within a couple of feet of the stern. He could hear Mandy and the men arguing in the boat.  &ldquo;You were in Mr Baines&rsquo; forest when that deer was taken&rdquo; said a voice, &ldquo;you must know who did it.&rdquo;  &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t&rdquo;, pleaded Mandy .  &ldquo;Come on Mandy,&rdquo; said another voice, &ldquo;Who&rsquo;s side are you on?&rdquo;  &ldquo;Mr Baines wants to know who stole his deer,&rdquo; said the first, &ldquo;and you&rsquo;re the person to tell him. It wasn&rsquo;t Gillian, was it, she had nothing to do with it.&rdquo;  &ldquo;No&rdquo; said Mandy.  &ldquo;So who was it? Was it Adam.&rdquo;  &ldquo;I can&rsquo;t tell you that&rdquo; said Mandy.  &ldquo;Why not?&rdquo; asked the first.  &ldquo;I can&rsquo;t tell you why.&rdquo; said Mandy, &ldquo;You&rsquo;ve got the money. Now leave me alone&rdquo;.  &ldquo;Mandy, we&rsquo;ve told you before. Do you want to go to a reform school? Do you want your mother to be beaten up in jail? Because we can fix all that, and more, if you don&rsquo;t do as you are told. You&rsquo;re working for us now, and your target is to increase sales by 50%. It&rsquo;s pathetic what you&rsquo;re selling, it really is. Do you think we come all this way so that you can hand out a few joints to your friends? We want real money. Your target is 50%, or next thing you hear, your mother will have been beaten up. Do you understand me?&rdquo;  Adam drew in a sharp intake of breath. So that was why Mandy was dealing in drugs. She was being blackmailed.  Quickly he read the boat&rsquo;s name, &ldquo;Lethe&rdquo;, and registration number, it was registered on the Clyde, 406723. He nodded to Albert.  &ldquo;So how long do you think it will take you to sell five hundred pounds worth?&rdquo; asked someone.  &ldquo;Mike, there&rsquo;s a seal or something.&rdquo; said someone else.  Suddenly a powerful flashlight was shone upon the water. Adam immediately dived. He could see nothing under the water, and kicked out in the vague direction of the shore. He swam underwater for as long as he could, then broke the water to take a breath in, and dived once more. After swimming again for as long as he could, he risked a look, and attempted to tread water. His feet caught the bottom. He was swimming in only a few feet of water.  The powerful flashlight was shining at the end of the jetty. Two adult figures were moving about, and between them, something small and very white. They had caught Albert.  Slowly the figures moved down the jetty, towards where Adam was standing, all but his head covered by the water.  &ldquo;They&rsquo;ll find our clothes&rdquo; thought Adam, &ldquo;then they&rsquo;ll know there were two of us.&rdquo;  A sudden, mad thought struck him. The smugglers had left the boat. Surely, if he swam back to it, he could unhook the mooring rope, and set it adrift. Diving under the water again, the swam in the opposite direction, towards the boat.  The flashlight was at the shore end of the jetty by the time Adam surfaced, and looked around. The jetty rose sheer from the water. However there were crevices in the ancient stone, and Adam had bare toes. He climbed. If he fell he would fall into water, that was a comforting thought. His hands reached the stone platform, and painfully he dragged himself onto the causeway. The rope was wound round a stone pillar. If only he had brought James&rsquo; knife.  There wasn&rsquo;t much light from the boat, but Adam worked quickly. His fingers found the knot. It wouldn&rsquo;t move.  &ldquo;There must be some easy way&rdquo; he thought, &ldquo;or they wouldn&rsquo;t be able to cast off .&rdquo;  &ldquo;You pull the thread at the side of the knot.&rdquo;  The voice was sudden, coming from the inside of the boat. It wasn&rsquo;t empty, after all. Of course, he should have realised. They wouldn&rsquo;t leave Mandy alone with their vessel.  A large man hopped from the boat to the quay.   &ldquo;Get on the boat&rdquo; he ordered, putting his hand round Adam&rsquo;s neck.  Adam was too frightened to try to run for it.  &ldquo;Thank goodness they&rsquo;ve found you&rdquo; said Mandy, &ldquo;Adam, they were going to threaten to kill Albert if you didn&rsquo;t give yourself up. You must do as they say. These people won&rsquo;t mess about.&rdquo;  &ldquo;Shut up&rdquo; said the man.  &ldquo;What harm is she doing?&rdquo; said Adam.  &ldquo;You shut up too&rdquo; said the man, &ldquo;what do you think you were doing, anyway?&rdquo;  &ldquo;Just playing&rdquo; said Adam.  &ldquo;At ten O&rsquo;Clock at night?&rdquo; said the man, &ldquo;tell us what you were doing. Were you hassling Mandy?&rdquo;  &ldquo;Chris, he didn&rsquo;t mean any harm&rdquo; said Mandy, &ldquo;Please, Chris, just let us go.&rdquo;  &ldquo;I said shut up&rdquo; said Chris.  The other two men returned, with Albert, carrying their clothes.  &ldquo;Looks like you&rsquo;re not as clever as you think you are&rdquo; said the slick man, &ldquo;who told you to spy on us?&rdquo;   &ldquo;Please, Mike&rdquo; said Mandy, &ldquo;no-one told them. They didn&rsquo;t mean anything.&rdquo;  &ldquo;Who is this one?&rdquo; asked Mike.  &ldquo;Adam&rdquo; said Mandy.  &ldquo;So&rdquo; Mike curled his lip, &ldquo;the famous Adam. You&rsquo;ve been a major nuisance to us, Adam. I&rsquo;ve a good mind to put you and your friend away. You were swimming in the sea, late at night. No-one will know if a wave swept you both away. One of those tragic things that happens.&rdquo;  &ldquo;No, Mike, please&rdquo; said Mandy.  &ldquo;Shut up&rdquo; said Mike, &ldquo;None of your business. Alternatively you could work for us. It&rsquo;s your choice, Adam and Albert, a watery grave, or stop working for whoever is controlling you, and work for us big boys.&rdquo;  &ldquo;It&rsquo;s not so easy to commit an undetected murder&rdquo; said Adam.  &ldquo;So&rdquo; laughed Mike with a sneer, &ldquo;this one has attitude. What choice do we have, Adam?&rdquo;  &ldquo;You&rsquo;ve got to kill them&rdquo; said Chris, &ldquo;sorry, boys, but you brought this on yourselves.&rdquo;  &ldquo;No&rdquo; said Mandy.  Mike struck her hard across the mouth.  &ldquo;I said shut up&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;It&rsquo;s none of your business. If it wasn&rsquo;t for your incompetence, Mandy, we wouldn&rsquo;t be in this mess. You think I like drowning two schoolboys? But there&rsquo;s no choice, I have to do it.&rdquo;  &ldquo;Shall I put the clothes back on shore?&rdquo; said Chris.  &ldquo;Yes, do that&rdquo; said Mike, and Mandy&rsquo;s too&rdquo;  &ldquo;Mine?&rdquo; said Mandy.  &ldquo;You&rsquo;ve finished your usefulness to us&rdquo; said Mike, &ldquo;it&rsquo;s just too dangerous to keep you running any longer. Best if you go in the sea.&rdquo;  &ldquo;What&lsquo;s that light?&ldquo; said Chris.  The children turned their faces towards the shore. There was a light at the end of the jetty, and, clearly bathed in the pool of radiance cast by the light, the cowled figure of a monk.  &ldquo;Brother Dominic!&rdquo; said Mandy, then screamed at the top of her voice, &ldquo;Brother Dominic!&rdquo;  &ldquo;You&rsquo;re busted&rdquo; said Adam.  Chris made to strike him over the cheek, but Mike called, &ldquo;Get the brats away, you idiot, and cast off, It&lsquo;s our only chance of not being caught.&ldquo;  Unceremoniously the three were bundled off the boat and onto the jetty. Chris pulled the mooring knot, and the boat cast off.  The three made it down the jetty. The light faded.  &ldquo;Where&rsquo;s Br Dominic?&rdquo; asked Albert.  &ldquo;Maybe he ran to get help?&rdquo; suggested Adam.  &ldquo;The light faded.&rdquo; said Adam.  &ldquo;Well he&rsquo;s not here now&rdquo; said Adam, &ldquo;come on, I&rsquo;m freezing. And we&rsquo;ll have to explain how we lost our school uniforms.&rdquo;  &ldquo;I&rsquo;m just glad to be alive&rdquo; said Mandy.   &ldquo;Well if it wasn&rsquo;t for your stupid drug deals we wouldn&rsquo;t have all been put in danger&rdquo; said Adam, &ldquo;I can still see that boat out to sea&rdquo;.  &ldquo;Let&rsquo;s get off the path, in case they change their minds and come after us&rdquo; said Albert.</p>
        
        <p> &ldquo;Where&rsquo;s Mandy?&rdquo; said Cecilia, &ldquo;it&rsquo;s nearly roll-call for bed.&rdquo;  Abagail shrugged, &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know. Gone for a walk, I expect.&rdquo;  &ldquo;In this freezing cold?&rdquo; said Cecilia, &ldquo;She must have gone to get drugs.&rdquo;  &ldquo;I thought Adam and Albert put a stop to that.&rdquo; said Abagail.  &ldquo;Obviously not. Abbey, that must be it.&rdquo;  A sudden thought struck Abagail, &ldquo;She must have taken blonde Mary&rsquo;s money. To buy drugs with.&rdquo;  &ldquo;You&rsquo;re right,&rdquo; said Cecilia, &ldquo;what an awful thought.&rdquo;  &ldquo;So what do we do?&rdquo; asked Abagail.  &ldquo;Tell blonde Mary&rdquo; said Cecilia, &ldquo;It&rsquo;s her money.&rdquo;  Blonde Mary was shocked.  &ldquo;Do you know this?&rdquo; she asked.  &ldquo;No,&rdquo; said Abagail, &ldquo;but it all makes sense. Adam told me that he and Albert threw Mandy&rsquo;s drugs into the sea. So where&rsquo;s she getting money from, to buy another supply? Then the money went missing from your locker. Who knew you had that much there? Mandy. And how likely is it that a second year sneaked into our dorm? OK, I&rsquo;ll admit it&rsquo;s possible. But is it likely? It&rsquo;s just got to be Mandy.&rdquo;  &ldquo;But Mandy is my friend&rdquo; said blonde Mary.  &ldquo;Mary&rdquo; said Cecilia, &ldquo;you two were never real friends. You used each other, she got drugs for you, you were the glamorous associate for her. But you weren&rsquo;t real friends.&rdquo;  &ldquo;So what do we do?&rdquo; asked blonde Mary.  &ldquo;Confront her&rdquo; said Abagail.  &ldquo;She&rsquo;ll just deny it&rdquo; said Cecilia, &ldquo;she&rsquo;ll be lying, and we&rsquo;ll know that she&rsquo;s lying, and she&rsquo;ll know that we know she&rsquo;s lying. But we won&rsquo;t be able to prove it.&rdquo;  Blonde Mary thought. Then she smiled.  &ldquo;You girls did a collection.&rdquo; she said, &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t really need the money, though I&rsquo;m very grateful for the thought. Now I&rsquo;m going to use that money.&rdquo;  She took out a hundred pounds, and put it on Mandy&rsquo;s locker, hiding it under a notebook.  &ldquo;Let&rsquo;s see how she deals with that.&rdquo;  Mandy was still missing at roll call. Matron called lights out, and said she&rsquo;d report to Fr Abbot.  The girls waited, none able to get to sleep.  &ldquo;She must be in some sort of trouble&rdquo; said Abagail, &ldquo;she&rsquo;d never miss roll call deliberately.&rdquo;  &ldquo;Maybe she didn&rsquo;t steal the money after all&rdquo; said blonde Mary, &ldquo;how rotten we&rsquo;d feel, if she went missing, and the last thing we did was to suspect her of stealing.&rdquo;  &ldquo;Her fault for getting such a bad reputation&rdquo; said short Mary.  Eventually Mandy came. She came in through the main door, and put the light on.  &lsquo;Mandy,&rdquo; said blonde Mary, &ldquo;everyone&rsquo;s been missing you. Cecilia and I, and of course Matron. Even your lockers&rsquo; been missing you.&rdquo;  &ldquo;My locker?&rdquo; said Mandy, curiously.  &ldquo;Yes&rdquo; said blonde Mary, &ldquo;your locker&rsquo;s been quite worried. Go and say hello to it.&rdquo;  Mandy went to her locker. She started to unlock it, then noticed something under the notebook. She moved it, and withdrew in shock. There was a pile of bank notes.  &ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t steal&rdquo; she said.  &ldquo;Caught&rdquo; said Abagail.  &ldquo;How do you know? Where&rsquo;s your proof?&rdquo; said Mandy, bewildered.  Four girls smiled at her thinly.  &ldquo;Innocent people don&rsquo;t say &lsquo;where&rsquo;s your proof&rsquo;&rdquo; said Abagail, at last.  Tears began to flow down Mandy&rsquo;s cheek.  &ldquo;You&rsquo;re your own worst enemy&rdquo; said Cecilia.  &ldquo;You&rsquo;re out of this school&rdquo; said short Mary.  &ldquo;Mandy&rdquo; said blonde Mary, &ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t believe you could take my money. Cecilia said we two were never friends. We were just using each other. Tell me that wasn&rsquo;t true, Mandy.&rdquo;  &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know&rdquo; said Mandy.  &ldquo;It wasn&rsquo;t true.&rdquo; said blonde Mary. &ldquo;Look, Mandy, keep the hundred pounds. I forgive you, Mandy.&rdquo;  &ldquo;You can&rsquo;t do that&rdquo; said short Mary.  &ldquo;She stole three hundred, now you&rsquo;re giving her hundred for doing it&rdquo; said Abagail &ldquo;some rich girl.&rdquo;  &ldquo;It&rsquo;s my money&rdquo; said blonde Mary.  &ldquo;And it&rsquo;s worth four hundred pounds just to show that I was wrong&rdquo; said Cecilia, &ldquo;Mandy, you&rsquo;ve got another chance. I told blonde Mary you stole the money because you and her were just using each other, but blonde Mary doesn&rsquo;t want that. She wants you to be her real friend. Now for heaven&rsquo;s sake give her that.&rdquo;  Blonde Mary went over and hugged the still crying Mandy.  &ldquo;This calls for a quick drink&rdquo; said Abagail. &ldquo;Lights off, torches on.&rdquo;    Fr Abbot called all three to his office the next morning.  &quot;They were drug smugglers&quot; said Adam, &quot;they made Mandy work for them by threatening her mother, who is in jail. We followed her, but they caught us and said they&rsquo;d throw us all into the sea and drown us. &ldquo;  &ldquo;Do you have any proof of this?&rdquo; asked Fr Abbot.  &ldquo;The three of us&rdquo;  &ldquo;Are friends and confer. How does anyone know that you&rsquo;re not just making this up?&rdquo;  &ldquo;One of the monks saw us in the boat. The smugglers saw his lantern. That&rsquo;s why the smugglers let us go.&rdquo;  &ldquo;We had a school meeting last night,&rdquo; said Fr Abbot, &ldquo;all of the monks were present.&rdquo;  &ldquo;Well we certainly saw one. All three of us. The smugglers too. They wouldn&rsquo;t have let us go otherwise.&rdquo;  &ldquo;Unfortunately that won&rsquo;t stand up in court, and these organisations are very pervasive. No real point jailing the three men who were in the boat, They&rsquo;re just the minor players. The brains behind the operation wouldn&rsquo;t take those sorts of risks.&rdquo;  &ldquo;So there&rsquo;s nothing you can do?&rdquo; said Adam.   &ldquo;I doubt I can send them to jail&rdquo; said Fr Abbot, &ldquo;but somehow I think that boat will be making no more visits to our island. Well done, you two.&rdquo;  &ldquo;But we know who the big man is&rdquo; said Adam, &ldquo;they tried to get out of Mandy who was responsible for killing the white stag. Which can only mean one thing. Mr Big is Mr Baines.&rdquo;  &ldquo;And how would Mandy know who killed the white stag?&rdquo; asked Fr Abbot.  Adam grinned sheepishly.  &ldquo;Children,&rdquo; said Fr Abbot, &ldquo;as I said, none of this will stand up in court. Mandy, you can&rsquo;t protect your mother. Attempts to do so just put her in more danger. She&rsquo;s chosen her own path in life, and she must tread it as best she can. She is the parent, you are the child. Maybe you&rsquo;ve learned something from this, I don&rsquo;t know.&rdquo;  &quot;I know now who my real friends are&quot; said Mandy.  &quot;Who are?&quot;  &quot;Adam and Albert and ...&quot;  &quot;Cecilia?&quot; suggested Fr Abbot.  &quot;Cecilia? Well yes,&quot; thought Mandy, &quot;I suppose Cecilia too.&quot;  &quot;So, a bit alarming&quot; said Fr Abbot, &quot;but all in all a very successful term. Now let us see who does best in the exams. &quot;</p>
        
        <p>Abagail read the local paper on the Internet the next day, and found that the wife of the chief constable had won a million pound jackpot at a casino. No charges were ever brought against Mike, Chris and Lionel. Mandy perpetually worried about the threat to her mother, but there was nothing she could do about it. Not all problems could be resolved.</p>
        
        <p>Then it was extra prep, to revise for the examinations. The whole school took them at the end of the term, with the exception of sixth-formers, who had public examinations for university entry to prepare for.  &quot;What is my strongest subject?&quot; thought Abagail, &quot;I don't really know. Unlike Adam I'm reasonably good at everything, but don't like anything. Why do we have to do lessons?&quot;  Adam too was in despair. Science was his strongest subject, but almost everything else seemed to have problems. He couldn't remember vocabulary lists for Latin. Maths was still weak, music hopeless. English was a bright spot but you couldn't really revise for that. History he was quite good at, but it didn't count for much since it was only two periods, and he hadn't worked hard at it. He began to find himself longing for the penultimate week to be over.  Mandy however was in her element. All her problems had dropped away, and she was good at academic work. The other girls started coming up to her for help with problems.  Ten to the power is a logarithm&quot; she explained to blonde Mary, &quot;when you multiply two of the same number to different powers, you add the powers. So it's easy. Numbers, logs, add the logs, and convert back to a number, and you've multiplied.&quot;  &quot;But what's the point&quot; said blonde Mary, &quot;why not just use the calculator?&quot;.  &quot;I don't know&quot; said Mandy, &quot;just do it, Mary, to get through the exam. It isn't hard.&quot; Cecilia wanted help on the Exodus. Mandy tested her on the ten plagues of Egypt.  &quot;The turning of the Nile to blood, frogs, lice, flies, a grievous murrain on their cattle, boils, hail, locusts, darkness and the killing of the first born.&quot; said Mandy, &quot;Can you remember that lot, Cecilia?&quot;  &quot;The Pharaoh's sorcerors also turned water to blood&quot; said Cecilia, &quot;and created frogs. But they couldn't reproduce the lice. Are we expected to believe that, Mandy?&quot;  &quot;Fr Eugene said they would have had sorcerors&quot; said Mandy, &quot;but he didn't say anything about being able to turn water to blood. I think we've got to decide.&quot;  &quot;Surely things like that can't happen&quot; said Cecilia.  &quot;I don't know, Cecilia&quot; said Mandy, &quot;I saw a ghost once.&quot;  &quot;Really, where?&quot; asked Cecilia.  &quot;At St Tom's&quot; said Mandy.  &quot;Why didn't you tell everybody?&quot;  &quot;Because you weren't talking to me at the time.&quot; said Mandy.  &quot;Oh Mandy, I'm sorry. That was so silly.&quot; said Cecilia, &quot;But you did hurt me, you know. You can kick viciously, and for no reason.&quot;  Mandy looked down.  &quot;I was just feeling so rejected by the other girls and, Cecilia, I saw your letter home.&quot; she said.  &quot;Letter home?&quot; said Cecilia.  &quot;In which you said I was not the sort of person you ought to be mixing with.&quot; said Mandy.  &quot;Oh Mandy&quot; said Cecilia, &quot;I didn't mean that. It was just to persuade my parents to let me go home. So much misunderstanding, over such a silly thing. But you shouldn't have been reading people's private letters, anyway.&quot;  &quot;Blonde Mary showed me&quot; said Mandy.  &quot;Now did she?&quot; said Cecilia.  &quot;Blood, frogs, lice ..., I can't remember, Mandy&quot;, said Cecilia, &quot;Do run through it again.&quot;     &quot;Ibrahim, if you go into the exams stoned you will fail&quot; Adam was almost beside himself.  &quot;Oh leave him alone, Adam&quot; said James, &quot;it's his look out&quot;.  &quot;No it's not&quot; said Adam, &quot;If he does badly it reduces standards for all the rest of us. Ibrahim, cut the dope.&quot;  &quot;I don't care&quot; said Ibrahim.  &quot;It's useless&quot; said Albert.  &quot;Where's he getting it from, anyway&quot; said Adam.  &quot;Rupert&quot; said Albert.  &quot;Who gets it from?&quot;  &quot;I don't know. Adam, if you're on some sort of crusade against all drugs, count me out. Mandy, yes, I care about, but blonde Mary and Ibrahim can stew in their own juice for all I care.&quot; said Albert, &quot;I've got to pass.&quot;  Ibrahim parked himself on his bed. &quot;Just don't get so worked up about things, relax.&quot; he said.  &quot;What a waste of time&quot; said Adam, &quot;we get rid of one bunch of smugglers, and the drugs just come in from another direction.&quot;  &quot;Well what did Fr Abbot tell you?&quot; said Albert, &quot;Come on, lets work through this. A logarithm is when you change a number into ten to the power of something. You can get them by pressing the right button on the calculator. Now how does the calculator work them out?&quot;  &quot;I don't know&quot; said Adam.  &quot;So we're going to have to leave that question&quot; said Albert. &quot;Natural logs are logs to the base e, and you can also have logs to the base 2. In fact it doesn't matter what number you use as the base.&quot;  &quot;Except one&quot; said Adam.  &quot;Except one. And zero. Zero to the anything is still zero.&quot;  &quot;No it's not&quot; said James, &quot;zero to the zero is one. So you can have base zero logs&quot;  &quot;As long as the only numbers you need are one and zero&quot; said Albert.  &quot;And zero to the minus something is infinity.&quot; said James, &quot;So you can have one, zero, or infinity.&quot;  &quot;We could have a base zero numbering system&quot; said Adam.  &quot;Numbering is logs&quot; said Albert, &quot;two to the zero, two to the one, two to the two, two to the three. That's a binary numbering system, as used in computers.&quot;  &quot;So if e is natural logs, why don't we use a base e numbering system?&quot; asked Adam.  &quot;That's one for Br Jumbo&quot; said Albert.</p>
        
        <p>Adam went to the old cemetery for a quiet moment. He found that the revision was overwhelming him, and he was nervous about the exams. Mandy appeared.  &quot;How are you doing, Adam?&quot; she asked.  &quot;Worried&quot; said Adam.  &quot;You shouldn't be&quot; said Mandy, &quot;you are one of the cleverest, Adam&quot;  &quot;Everyone says that&quot; said Adam, &quot;but I'm bad at so many things, like music and Latin and maths. And I'm not the best at anything. Albert is better than me at science, you and Cecilia better at English.&quot;  &quot;Just draw up a revision timetable, Adam&quot; said Mandy, &quot;I do Latin, RE, then maths and science, English and history. I do two subjects a day, and put the similar subjects together.&quot;  &quot;I can't do it, somehow&quot; said Adam.  &quot;So you just walk here&quot; said Mandy.  &quot;Yes&quot; said Adam, &quot;and by the sea. I practise the Psalms.&quot;  &quot;I thought you didn't like singing&quot; said Mandy.  &quot;Oh, I do&quot; said Adam, &quot;to myself. It's just that I can't get the notes.&quot;  &quot;Don't you find this place scary, on your own?&quot; asked Mandy.  &quot;No&quot; said Adam, &quot;but I once saw a ghost here. I'm hoping to see him again.&quot;  &quot;A ghost?&quot;  &quot;A monk&quot; said Adam.  &quot;I've seen him too&quot; said Mandy, &quot;in this spot.&quot;  &quot;When&quot; asked Adam. &#96; &quot;When you killed the rabbit&quot;  &quot;You weren't there when we killed the rabbit&quot; said Adam.  &quot;I realised the dorm was empty and sneaked out to spy on you.&quot; said Mandy.  &quot;That was when I saw the ghost&quot; said Adam.  &quot;So he only comes out once of twice, not very often. Probably we'll never see him again.&quot; Mandy sighed, &quot;It was always obvious that this island was going to be haunted.&quot;  Adam went to the gravestone.  &quot;'Hic jacet sepultus Gregorias abbas' 'Here lies buried Gregory the abbot'. I wonder if that is him&quot; he said.  &quot;We should have found out&quot; said Mandy.  &quot;It's almost the end of term now&quot; said Adam, &quot;If we hadn't wasted so much time arguing with each other, maybe we would have known who Gregory the Abbot was.&quot;</p>
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